Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Only a year ago, Los Angeles-based improv artists Douglas Saline and Kent Nichols were out of work and nearly destitute. After fruitlessly trying to sell a ninja movie script to Hollywood, the duo decided to produce a snippet of content themselves, offer it directly to consumers for download and see what happens. Today, they run an expanding media property selling ad space at $50 CPM to companies such as Sony and Warner Bros.

Today, the venture has become much more than a simple podcast. Messrs. Saline and Nichols have together produced 47 four-minute "Ask a Ninja" podcast episodes that average 200,000 U.S. downloads a week. Askaninja.com, where fans can watch video versions of the Ninja, pose questions and buy branded Ninja gear, has 3 million visits a month. And Ninja has been quoted on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives regarding the net neutrality issue and delivered an official movie review on NPR.

According to podcast advertising rep firm Podtrac, and 57% of the audience is between ages 19 and 34 and 83% is male.